Can/Should This Monopodial be "Topped"?

[Acharn]

A nephew-in-law of my wife brought me a number of plants from his parents home in Pitsanulok. Two bunches of them have been identified as Dendrobium Chrysotoxum, and I'm looking forward to seeing them become active again, but most were monopodials of some kind. One of them bloomed last month and I was able to identify it as Mokara Christine Panee, so I expect many of the others are hybrids as well. Many are quite small, and I don't know if they will bloom in the coming year or not, but two of them were particularly badly abused. They have long stalks where the leaves have fallen off, only a couple of limp leaves at the top, and very little in the way of roots.

So I was delighted when one of them started growing a flower stalk. It's now reached the point where it's just about to bloom, and I hope I'll be able to identify it, even though it has developed only two buds. I expected it to bloom over the weekend, but the buds are still growing so I expect the flowers will be large.

I've read that one thing you can do with monopodials that have become "leggy" is to "top" them, that is to cut off and pot the top portion and hope the remainder will grow new leaves as well. Here's a picture of the plant that is currently blooming; the other looks even worse and has an even longer bare stem (about 18 inches [30 cm]}. Can anyone recommend what I should do with them?

[Ray]

When you "top" a vandaceous plant, you need to have a significant root system be part of the removed piece. Your plant has no roots up near the leaves, so topping it would mean the certain death of the top, with no guarantee of a regrowth from the base.

Sometimes, if you maintain a moist wrap of sphagnum around the "stalk" below the leaves, the plant can grow roots through the moss, and THEN you'd be in a better position to try topping it.

[Acharn]

Originally Posted by Ray

When you "top" a vandaceous plant, you need to have a significant root system be part of the removed piece. Your plant has no roots up near the leaves, so topping it would mean the certain death of the top, with no guarantee of a regrowth from the base.

Sometimes, if you maintain a moist wrap of sphagnum around the "stalk" below the leaves, the plant can grow roots through the moss, and THEN you'd be in a better position to try topping it.

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Well, thank you for the advice. I can't get sphagnum moss, but here in Thailand they often use coconut husk fiber for the same purpose. I never had success when I tried it with roses, though.

I have a feeling the people my nephew got these from were just essentially throwing them away. The two like this are both in large wooden baskets with pieces of charcoal and coconut husk. The fact that this one is blooming is astonishing, but the buds are so pretty I'm certainly going to try to nurture them.